Chase Stokes Says He’s “Ready” For OBX To End

A lot has changed since Outer Banks premiered on Netflix in April 2020, but according to Chase Stokes, the storyline has managed to stay pretty consistent. For the actor, that’s partially why he’s “ready” for the show to end after Season 5, which is set to release in 2026.

“We want the story to end on the right note versus [turning] four seasons into Season 9 and we’re going after aliens or something. We want to cut the chord before we lose the plot,” he told People in an interview published Dec. 27.

According to the actor, he and the cast are “thankful for the run, and we’re ready for it to be done.” He added, “It’s beautiful to know that even though there’s the highs and lows throughout all of the seasons, it’s ending exactly how I was told when I started the show.”

Stokes also said he had a lot of “gratitude” for the show — although he initially thought he “bombed” his audition with director and showrunner Jonas Pate. “When I got thrown out here, I kind of accepted that this was probably my last shot at this industry and at this scale. I thought I’d bombed the audition with Jonas. And I sat on the curb of the front of the production office and I had a full mental breakdown, sobbing,” Stokes said. “He came out and he put his arm around me and he said, ‘Hey, I don’t know what you’re going through. I don’t know what you are feeling right now, but if you can bring this right here back into the room, I promise it’s going to be magical.’”

“There’s just so much gratitude because I was a kid who had a dream and no access to an industry, never really even knew what the process was,” he added. “I’ve checked so many boxes that I thought it would span the course of the next 40 years of my career.”

For his next career move, Stokes is looking to other actors as inspiration. “I always reference Robert Pattinson after he finished Twilight and [the] Harry Potter [franchise] and how he took creative risks, but really challenged himself as an artist. That’s the blueprint for me,” he said. “I want to show people that the floppy-haired beach boy from the Netflix young adult show, is now 33 years old. And at the end of the day, all I want to do is challenge myself.”